


Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes

by possiblywonderful



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Cooking, Domestic, Insecurity, Other, Talk about Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 01:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblywonderful/pseuds/possiblywonderful
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your boyfriend and your best friend are werewolves. Most people around you are somehow related to the supernatural. As much as I hate to admit it but you nearly died more often up until now than most people do in ten lives. You battled more supernatural creatures than most of the average books contain. I think being afraid of that kind of thing is not foolish but don’t forget what you’re capable of.” Derek levels him with a sincere look.</p><p>Or the one in which Stiles really hates stocktaking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes

**Author's Note:**

> That time I tried to write a drabble and ended up with a 2600 word long fic. Yeah.
> 
> Title taken from "Collide" by Howie Day.

„I swear to god, if I hear the word _stocktaking_ one more time, I’m gonna go ballistic.” Stiles groans audibly when he closes the front door behind him, letting his bag drop to the floor and slipping out if his shoes. He hears pots clatter and Derek’s amused chuckle in the kitchen as he makes his way towards it.

“You knew what you were in for when you signed up for it”, Derek says, turning away from the stove and towards Stiles.

“Yeah, right. When I signed the contract they said there might be some stocktaking for me to do sometime, like one afternoon or so since I’m a regular employee. But not stocktaking for one week, Derek. One _week_. It’s not like they hire people _especially_ to do only that because they totally do.” Stiles has been ranting about this since Tuesday and now, it was Friday afternoon. He was reasonably sorry for whining so much and for probably annoying the hell out of Derek but he just couldn’t wrap his head around five full days of freaking _stocktaking_.

Derek steps close to him, wrapping his arm around Stiles’ waist and plants a kiss on his lips. “Welcome home.”

Stiles takes a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second while laying his head on Derek’s shoulder to calm down some more. “Thank you”, he mumbles. “Can you imagine how much I wanted to just run home right after the moment I set foot into the office this morning already?”

“I think I get the idea”, Derek says, smiling. “But you’re home now. Try to forget work and enjoy the weekend.” He places a kiss on Stiles’ temple.

“That’s the thing…”, Stiles groans. “They said we need to come in tomorrow for another three hours.”

Derek strokes through Stiles’ hair, playing with a short strand. “I must agree with you here that that sucks. But it’s only three hours. You’ll get through that and when you come home, we’ll do something nice.”

“Something nice, huh.” Stiles wiggles his eyebrows, leaning back a little to look at Derek properly.

Derek smiles a small smile back at him, a content _mhm_ rumbling through his throat.

“I’m definitely in for that”, Stiles grins, leaning in for another kiss. They keep on exchanging lazy kisses for a few, fleeting moments until Stiles finally pulls away, leaning around Derek to eye the stove. “What’re you making?”

“Carbonara and Salad.”

“Are you making it just because I mentioned it this morning”, Stiles asks a bit incredulous.

“I needed to go shopping for the weekend anyway so I got the ingredients”, Derek shrugs.

“You’re so awesome I don’t think you even know how awesome you are”, Stiles beams up at him, planting another kiss onto his boyfriend’s lips.

“Your awesome boyfriend would find it awesome if you’d set the table”, Derek laughs.

“That I can do. And if you want me to, I can even count everything I put on the table and make a list about it very efficiently since I’m an expert on stocktaking now”, Stiles jokes.

Derek chuckles again, turning back towards the stove, focussing on the pasta in the pot, taking a noodle out to check if it was done.

Watching Derek cook was one of Stiles favourite things to do. The swift and efficient movements and the look of calm concentration on his face were so endearing, Stiles could just sit here for hours on end, watching his boyfriend doing nothing but exactly that. It was one of the things they did a lot at the very beginning, just staying home and cooking together before having a lazy movie night. Stiles knew his way around the kitchen well and had some great tricks of his own but Derek really was an ace at cooking and being taught by him was not only fun because he got to learn new things _and_ got to enjoy the great food afterwards but it was also a nice way of being around each other. Cooking was one of the things they shared with each other and equally liked a lot so they made it a routine by now to cook together at least twice a week and it was kind of an unspoken agreement that the one that’s home a lot earlier than the other prepares dinner for them.

A few minutes pass by in silence while Stiles sets the table and Derek takes care of the food. When Stiles is done, he makes his way through the kitchen towards Derek, embracing him from behind and planting his head onto Derek’s shoulder. “Smells delicious. Can’t we just eat right from the pot? I’m starving.”

“Be patient, you caveman”, Derek murmurs, prying Stiles off of him to take the pot to the sink to drain the pasta. Stiles groans grumpily because letting go of Derek was not a thing he wanted to do after such an exhausting day at work and food being taken far away from him was not a good thing either. But if he wanted to eat at some point of the night, he’d have to let Derek finish cooking so he resumes leaning against the counter, watching Derek add the finishing touches to the sauce before he arranges the dinner on the plates. Stiles fills the bowls with the salad and carries them over to the table just when Derek sets down the plates.

While eating, they fall into a comfortable conversation about pack related things and news about the people they knew, some of them Stiles’ old classmate he occasionally runs into and about the people around town that you just know when you grew up in here. Even though Beacon Hills was, strictly speaking, not a small town but it often behaved like one so there was a lot of chit-chat going round and news definitely travelled fast. Like that one time Stiles’ got his head stuck in an old tree trunk (which was totally not his fault no matter what his dad says) and half of the town had known about it before he even reached the hospital for the check-up.

But it’s nice to have talks about such basic things, nothing supernatural or related to imminent danger, just all-day normal, random topics. It took them a long time to get here, to be able to lead this kind of conversation but it’s probably because they’re so comfortable around each other by now that it’s just something that came along without them really paying too much attention to it. And when it was there, they accepted, maybe even embraced it wholeheartedly without really addressing it properly because there simply was no need to do so.

That’s a typical Stiles and Derek thing. They just knew stuff about each other. Not as in they’ve been learning about those things over the time but as in not having the need to talk about everything to know what’s going on. Scott calls it the Stiles and Derek Radar. It’s nice and Stiles enjoys it thoroughly because as much as he likes talking and socializing, he also loves to not have to voice out feelings sometimes because he knows that Derek gets it without needing words. Not all of the time because neither of them is psychic but most of the time, they do at least get the general mood right.

A good forty minutes later, they’re sprawled out on the couch with Stiles resting his back on Derek’s chest while watching a rerun of Iron Man on TV. After talking all through dinner, a warm and comfortable silence blankets them now, only interrupted by the sounds coming from the television. People have this common misconception about Stiles where they think that he’s talking all the time and that he, at least as much, needs action going on around him 24/7 because otherwise he will be easily and very quickly bored. It’s true that he likes to be around his friends and that he likes to talk a lot but it’s also true that he wants, probably even needs this kind of quiet time to recharge his batteries. It gives him a chance to properly think about all kinds of things going on in his life. The good and the bad.

Right now was one of those times.

“What’s wrong?” Derek nudges Stiles’ shoulder lightly with his own, looking down at him.

“Nothing, the day at work’s just still kind of on my mind”, Stiles shrugs it off, turning towards the TV again.

“It’s not only that.”

“You know how much goes through my mind simultaneously, right?” A short laugh escapes him.

“I do. Believe me, I do. But you’re in the kind of deep thought you’re only in when something’s been bothering you for longer.” Derek reaches for the remote to pause the movie.

“Hey, don’t. The best part’s about to come”, Stiles protest but he already knows that this is futile.

Derek puts the remote back onto the coffee table before he turns him and Stiles enough so he can look at Stiles without breaking his neck. “I’ve been keeping quiet about it for some time now but I’ve noticed the unhappy aura surrounding you whenever you came back from work in the recent months.”

Stiles averts his gaze, rubbing a hand over his face because he knows that Derek won’t back down before he at least says that he doesn’t wanna talk about it now. Which he kind of does. He does want to talk about it but it’s a thought that’s been growing inside his head since he finished college years ago and it’s been steadily growing up until now, where this thought has turned into something massively big.

“I just…”, Stiles sighs, heaving out a breath.

Derek silently waits for him to continue. He knows that sometimes, Stiles needs a few moments to phrase thoughts this big because he first needs organize all the little fractures going through his mind.

After a few moments though, Stiles heaves out another breath before speaking up. “I’ve been thinking about going freelance. For quite some time now, to be honest. I’m just so sick of work and my boss and being overqualified and unchallenged. I like my colleagues but that’s not the sole purpose you should go to work for, right?”

“It’s a big step.” Derek’s face is neutral and calm, not giving away any kind of thought he might have about Stiles’ confession.

“I know”, Stiles groans, covering his face with his hands, trying to rub away the tiredness that’s been crawling up his spine since they crashed on the sofa. “Believe me, I know. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s freaking hard. But I’m just…. This job…”

“It’s making you unhappy and it drains you.” Derek starts to cast small circles on Stiles’ stomach with his thumb.

“Yes…”, Stiles admits. “You know, I really enjoy what I’m doing and I’ve never doubted my choice of profession but my job just… You shouldn’t get up for work, thinking that you’d be glad to be nearly anywhere else but at work. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.”

Derek nods approvingly, gesturing for Stiles to continue.

“I know that a lot of people don’t work on their dream jobs and that there just are some parts of your job that are not as nice as others but I just don’t want to wake up one day, thinking about the chances I might’ve missed. The big _what if_. What if I would’ve tried to be freelance and what if it would’ve worked and I would’ve been ten times happier than on the shitty job I’m _still_ working on?” Stiles turns a little more so that he’s facing Derek directly now. “Sounds crazy, huh”, Stiles says after a few moments in which Derek just studied Stiles’ face with an unreadable expression.

“Go for it.”

“What?”

“Go for it, Stiles.”

“You really think I should?” Stiles gapes at him a little dumbfounded. “I mean there’s a high financial risk and it may all go to hell and explode in my, no, our faces and it just…”

Derek cuts him off by kissing him. It only lasts a few seconds but it does the trick nevertheless. “I don’t know if it’ll be successful because there are variables that can’t be foreseen or calculated beforehand but I know that you can do it.”

Derek looks at him with such determination, such honest conviction that Stiles needs a few seconds before he speaks up again. “You think so?”

“Yes”, Derek replies without hesitating. “And I don’t need to remind you that I’ve got your back in all these decisions, do I?”

“No”, Stiles shakes his head, a small smile on his lips. Silence falls upon them again, giving Stiles a moment or two to let his roaring mind settle a little. Derek simply keeps on rubbing small circles on Stiles’ stomach, waiting for him to come around.

“It’s scary and it’s overwhelming and I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Your boyfriend and your best friend are werewolves. Most people around you are somehow related to the supernatural. As much as I hate to admit it but you nearly died more often up until now than most people do in ten lives. You battled more supernatural creatures than most of the average books contain. I think being afraid of that kind of thing is not foolish but don’t forget what you’re capable of.” Derek levels him with a sincere look.

“Those are things I’m good at. But freelancing is a whole different level of scary. Which is a little ironic in the face of at least ten possible deaths.” Stiles laughs while turning again to rest his side on Derek’s chest, laying his head on Derek’s shoulder.

“You are the most stubborn and most determined person I know, Stiles. If you set your mind to it, you can do practically anything. Sure, there are risks about going freelance but I doubt that there’s anything going to stop you.” Derek turns enough to place a kiss on Stiles’ temple. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. Thinking about it is fine and necessary but stop doubting yourself so much. There’s no need for it.”

Stiles leans forward in a quick gesture, kissing Derek hard on the lips. He tries to pour all his gratitude and all his feelings into it so Derek realises how grateful he is, how much he thanks the heavens above for what they have nearly every day. “You’re awesome. I mean, I know I’m good at a few things. Okay, I’m pretty awesome at many things, actually so much that people should start to pay me for wh… hey”, Stiles laughs when Derek nudges him playfully in the side, tickling him in the process. “But since I’ve got some pretty neat self-conscious issues you’re awesome for reminding me of what I’m really capable of doing.”

“Gladly”, Derek replies before he kisses Stiles again, this time deeper and more thorough than the kiss Stiles gave him. They fall into their oh so familiar movements, the comfort of their touches and the warmth of their bodies.

Even after all these years, they don’t get tired of doing this, never really losing interest in each other’s bodies or being close to each other. There are still new things to explore and quite often, there are moments in which they do something or feel something they’ve never felt that way before. So no, they’re not really getting tired of this, probably never will.

They do finish watching the movie though. Eventually.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> A big, big hug and thank you to [Amy Rose](http://halesparkles.tumblr.com/) and [Vivi](http://musicandlovesavedmylife.tumblr.com/) for the prompts for this fic! I was so free to combine them. This fic is for you guys *hugs and kisses*
> 
> If you have any questions, ideas or constructive criticism, feel free to send a message or a comment my way here or on my [Tumblr](http://possiblywonderful.tumblr.com).


End file.
